August Samie is a fourth-year doctoral student in NELC focusing on nation-building and historical memory. August first traveled to Uzbekistan in 2012 for research, then returned in the summer of 2013 as an interpreter for ASU’s summer intensive program in Persian and Uzbek. His talk brings together Persian Circle and Turkish Circle to discuss a brief history of this Persianate country, his time working in Tashkent and Samarqand, and some perspectives of how young Uzbeks view their nation. This talk will feature images and media from Uzbekistan.

Mehrnaz Saeed-Vafa is a filmmaker and a professor in the Cinema and Television Arts Department at Columbia College Chicago. She has written extensively on Iranian cinema and has published her book on Abbas Kiarostami co-written with Jonathan Rosenbaum in 2003. In this talk, she will review Kiarostami’s career and his significance in world cinema. She will focus on some of his films including, Close-Up, The Traveler, Taste of Cherry, and The Wind Will Carry Us.

Please join us for a Persian Circle talk on Tuesday, May 9 at 4:30 PM with Dumanian Visiting Professor Giusto Traina (University of Paris-Sorbonne):

“Ardaxshīr I: The Armenian File”

When it comes to consider the Armenian sources, many Iranologists still follow the attitude of Arthur Christensen: although apparently neutral, the great Danish scholar made actually use of them the least possible. The Armenian evidence is suspect, not only because these texts are not contemporary, but also because they reflect a different perspective. In this paper, Prof. Traina will present the particular case of the rise of the Sasanians. The ‘Armenian file’ on this event consists of several passages of Agat‘angełos and Movsēs Xorenac’i, the main local sources for the history of ancient Armenia, and in a Greek text translated from Armenian but inspired by Pahlavi literature, the so-called Romance of Artawan and Artašir.

In this talk, intended as a cautionary tale, Dr. Takloo-Bighash will describe the democratic processes present in the constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran. He will show that in an abstract sense the current Iranian system of government might be considered a democracy, even though in practice it is not. The talk ends with a discussion of some possible explanations for this discrepancy.

]]>https://lucian.uchicago.edu/blogs/persiancircle/2017/04/23/tues-april-25-dr-ramin-takloo-bigash-on-democratic-processes-of-the-iranian-constitution/feed/0April 18: Alex Shamshttps://lucian.uchicago.edu/blogs/persiancircle/2017/04/18/april-18-alex-shams/
https://lucian.uchicago.edu/blogs/persiancircle/2017/04/18/april-18-alex-shams/#commentsTue, 18 Apr 2017 16:56:32 +0000https://lucian.uchicago.edu/blogs/persiancircle/?p=1196Continue reading →]]>Salaam! Please join us for a Persian Circle talk on Tuesday, April 18 with Alex Shams (Uchicago, Anthropology). We will have an introductory session for students in English at 4:30 pm, the talk in Persian will begin at 5 pm.

دختران انقلاب: دسترسی زنان ایرانی‌ به تحصيلات در دهه شصت

Daughters of the Revolution: Iranian Women’s Access to Education in Khomeini’s Iran

Following the Iranian Revolution of 1978-9, women’s access to education increased dramatically amidst a broader transformation of gender norms unprecedented in modern Iranian history. In just the first decade after the Revolution, women’s literacy rates doubled as a result of revolutionary mass education campaigns. By the 2000s, higher education had gone from being a privilege afforded to a tiny minority of women to a social norm and a right for the majority. Whereas in 1979 less than a quarter of one percent of Iranian women attended university, by the 2000s the figures were around 60%.

Scholars of modern Iran have often overlooked the reasons for these dramatic changes in gender politics, ignoring the mobilization of the Iranian Revolution, the Iran-Iraq War, as well as revolutionary programs that specifically sought to improve women’s access to education as part of revolutionary ideology. This presentation is based on ethnographic research in Iran and analyzes the reasons for these dramatic changes by exploring the oral histories of Iranian women who were the first in their families to access higher education.

Please join us for an exciting Spring Quarter at the Persian Circle, a weekly event for all students, faculty, and those interested in Persian and Iran. We will meet on Tuesdays, 4:30 pm – 6 pm in Pick Hall 218 (5828 S University Ave) and enjoy talks on a variety of topics by faculty, students, and professionals. Here is a list of our future events for Spring quarter, so mark your calendars:

*These sessions will be either be in English, in English and Persian, preceded by an introductory part in English for students, or the talk will be designed explicitly for students’ needs. Details will be announced for each talk.

There will always be tea and sweets – so come, sit down, treat yourself and be a part of the Persian speaking community.

See you on Tuesdays!
به امید دیدار
Alexandra

]]>https://lucian.uchicago.edu/blogs/persiancircle/2017/03/30/1182/feed/0March 28: Sarvin Haghighihttps://lucian.uchicago.edu/blogs/persiancircle/2017/03/26/march-28-sarvin-haghighi/
https://lucian.uchicago.edu/blogs/persiancircle/2017/03/26/march-28-sarvin-haghighi/#respondMon, 27 Mar 2017 02:21:18 +0000https://lucian.uchicago.edu/blogs/persiancircle/?p=1178Continue reading →]]>Salaam, I hope you had a pleasant Spring break! Please join us for the first Persian Circle talk of the Spring Quarter on Tuesday, March 28 at 4:30pm with artist Sarvin Haghighi:

Bridging the Divide

This talk will be in Persian and English

Sarvin Haghighi is an Iranian born artist based in Chicago. Her ambition is to share part of rich and beautiful part of her culture through her art. She merges traditional Iranian art forms with a contemporary sensibility. In combining Farsi calligraphy and Islamic architectural designs with mixed media, Haghighi affirms the enduring aesthetic of a culture that is too often represented through the limited lenses of war and political turmoil. Nostalgic memories of her beloved Iran reminds her who she is, and fortify her sense of cultural pride in a land that all too often depicts a most disconcerting and often polar-opposite reflection of her cherished motherland.

She was recently caught in the midst of the Travel Ban which left her stranded in Australia for a week. She will talk about her journey as a female artist in Iran and now in the US.